ECONOMIC development is not a sole product of capital accumulation or technological advancement in a society rather fundamentally driven by the quality of its institutions. As Douglass North and Daron Acemoglu put it, these institutions, encompassing both formal laws & rules and informal norms, are the “rules of the game.” They dictate economic incentives, guide investment behavior, and ultimately determine long-term prosperity. They are intrinsically tethered to their governing legal and regulatory frameworks of a state. In our country, a profound institutional paradox has emerged; despite the aggressive proliferation of a voluminous and frequently excessive legislative corpus, state institutions have devolved from engines of macroeconomic development into instruments of extraction.

One of the defining characteristics of Pakistan’s administrative system is its reliance on legalism-the assumption that socioeconomic problems can be solved through the introduction of increasingly detailed laws, regulations, and administrative controls. While regulation is essential for protecting public welfare and ensuring market stability, excessive regulation without effective oversight, often creates opportunities for abuse. Rather than facilitating entrepreneurship, many regulatory institutions inadvertently increase the transaction costs of doing business. According to an internal review, there are about two hundred and seventy laws requiring enforcement of businesses in Punjab alone coupled with hundreds of subsequent regulations. Every new scenario of is responded in administrative naïve on adding new regulations and addition of........

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